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  Bloomberg A fresh pull-back in oil prices and waning risk appetite towards equity markets in general may drag Gulf stock markets lower on Wednesday. Brent oil futures lost 1.2 percent on Tuesday and have continued to fall in Asian trade on Wednesday; they were at $54.66 a barrel at 0524 GMT. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ...

  Bloomberg Asian shares rose as Chinese property developers jumped on optimism, offsetting declines in India where the government unexpectedly signaled an end to an easing cycle. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.3 percent as of 5:07 p.m. in Hong Kong, erasing an earlier decline. Country Garden Holdings Co. surged the most in 21 months as analysts at Goldman ...

  Bloomberg Boosted by higher prices and presidential promises of aid, US coal is having a comeback season. Yet a looming quandary remains: Demand continues to shrink. In the boom-bust cycles of old, the fuel’s use grew relentlessly as a fleet of coal-fired power plants fed America’s hunger for electricity. Now, a new age of clean, cheap natural gas and ...

  Bloomberg Brexit has brightened the outlook for UK solar funds, with higher power prices lifting earnings for the industry and burnishing its attraction for investors seeking to insulate themselves from political upheaval. Trading volumes at three London-listed UK solar funds more than doubled in the six months after June’s referendum calling on Britain to exit the European Union, compared ...

  Bloomberg Remittances from Egyptians working abroad are surging and foreigners bought more than $250 million in local assets during the beginning of the week, further signs of growing confidence in the nation’s economy after it floated the currency and secured a $12 billion IMF loan. Expatriate workers sent home $4.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016, up 12 ...

  Reuters Pressure on Qatar’s state finances is easing because of higher oil prices and the government may not need to issue an international bond this year, but it is still seeking ways to save money, finance minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi said. “We may not issue a bond this year given where oil prices are – right now we are ...

  Reuters Qatar hasn’t made a decision on whether to sell debt, with current oil prices close to the level the country needs to finance spending, according to Finance Minister Ali Al Emadi. “We feel very comfortable,” Al Emadi told reporters in Doha, adding that Qatar is spending about $500 million a week on capital projects. The economy will grow ...

  Bloomberg Rio Tinto Group is delivering on a promise to reward investors as it emerges from an industry-wide downturn by paying out a bigger-than-expected dividend and announcing a surprise $500 million share buyback. Last year’s 81 percent surge in iron ore prices helped the world’s second-biggest mining company report its first gain in annual profit since 2013, exceeding analysts’ ...

  Bloomberg Film director and lawmaker David Puttnam is proposing measures in the UK’s House of Lords aimed at frustrating Rupert Murdoch’s 11.7 billion-pound ($14.6 billion) plan to merge his US media company, 21st Century Fox Inc., with European pay-television broadcaster Sky Plc. The amendments to the proposed Digital Economy Bill would subject media acquirers to a so-called fit-and-proper test ...

  Bloomberg The controversial Dakota Access pipeline is set to gain the final go-ahead for completion after President Donald Trump asked for a speedy approval. The US Army said it will grant Energy Transfer Partners LP the easement it needs to finish the line that will ship almost half a million barrels of crude a day from North Dakota’s shale ...